Friday, March 13, 2009

Morello Cherries

Today’s rave: Morello cherry extra jam preserve, from Fortnum & Mason in London. First of all, Fortnum & Mason is a store where I could literally spend an hour window shopping on the ground floor. They have a wonderful assortment of jams, preserves, marmalades, jellies, teas, cookies, etc. It’s a shame we don’t have anything comparable on this side of the Atlantic. The best jams here are usually imported from Europe, and even then, we don’t have nearly as good a selection as Europeans do. Some local artisanal stores make good jams here, sure, but there’s nothing that compares to the sheer size, location and choice at Fortnum & Mason.

So this Morello cherry preserve was kindly given to me by my neighbour, whose plants I had watered when she was out of town. The tag on the jar says “Handmade in England from the tartest cherries. Good on hot, buttery toast and superb with roast duck.” My first thought was “How come we don’t have amazing descriptions like that on Canadian products?” And my second thought was “I have to add duck breast to the grocery list”. So I did, and we had some of the preserve with roasted duck. It was amazing. Orgasmic, even. Roast duck in and of itself is probably my favourite meal, but these cherries set the bar really high now. I love them!

Luckily, as I was looking at Fortnum & Mason’s website just now, I realized that they can ship their products to Canada and the U.S.! It’s probably going to be expensive, of course, but I’m keeping that in mind.